Home Workout: Don’t Be a Prisoner

Get Motivated and Start Exercising

Take “home is where the heart is” to the next level. Keep the same drive and motivation at home as you did at the gym. Put your heart into your home, working out as if you were at the gym. Believe me, this does stink that the gyms are closed but that does not mean you cannot get a solid workout in. I have jogged more in the past week than all of 2019. It is the incentive factor that is tough to amp up at home. Here are a few ways to put some gas on that motivation fire.

Play Some Music

Music increases stimulation. This is because music is able to increase stimulation, as there’s a connection between auditory neurons and motor neurons. That’s why music often makes us more mobile and motivates our body to move. Physical activity sparks mental activity; therefore, music fuels productivity and motivation.

Watch a Few Workout Videos

For me this one is just a preference. Sometimes I will look up YouTube workouts to get some ideas and it really motivates me, or even sometimes boxing and or UFC does it for me. It gets me going.

Pre-workout Drink

If taken in proper doses, this can be a great option for an energy boost. It is the caffeine in most pre-workouts that gets you motivated. Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant of the methylxanthine class. It is the world’s most widely consumed psychoactive drug.

Get Up and Move Around

A 15- or 20-minute walk is better than no activity at all, because that’s 15 minutes you won’t be sitting around trying to find your motivation. Walk around the block, ALONE! Remember social distancing. It’s all about getting that heart rate up. Move a muscle, change a thought. Perhaps you have heard that phrase before. It basically is a statement that represents the connection between our physical and mental activity. It is used to alleviate worry, fear, depression or any other negative mental or emotional state.

Have a Little Fruit

If you are feeling a little blah, grab some fruit. Slice up a pineapple. The sugars are sure to get you moving; yes it might be a quick sugar rush, but sometimes that’s what is needed to get moving.

If you haven’t been exercising because of being home quarantined, you need to start. The first thing you need is motivation. If you’re good at coming up with excuses not to exercise, start replacing those excuses with motivational thoughts and affirmations. Now that I have given you a few ways to get moving, let us give some exercises a try. Here are a few to start with.

Reverse Dips

Face away from the dip bars (at home this can be done on a coffee table) and position yourself so that your body is suspended in the air with your arms straight and elbows soft. Lower your body until your elbows are at 90 degrees of flexion while keeping your elbows in close to your body.

Plank Push-ups

The plank is an isometric core strength exercise that involves maintaining a position similar to a push-up for the maximum possible time. Add a few push-ups in between sets to give the upper body and core a little more intensity.

Sandbag Squats

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart holding a sandbag (or anything in your house with some weight to it) across your upper back. Taking care to not arch your back, push your hips back and bend your knees to lower your body until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Drive your heels into the floor to push yourself explosively back up to the start position. You can start this with no weight at first to get proper form.

Hammer Curls

Stand up holding a pair of dumbbells with your hands down at the side and your palms facing your body (a neutral grip). Slowly curl the dumbbell of your left arm across the body toward your right shoulder. If you do not have any dumbbells, you can do this exercise with a gallon of water (empty some water out if it’s too heavy).

Find Some Stairs

Stair climbing is the climbing of a flight of stairs. It is often described as a “low-impact” exercise, often for people who have recently started trying to get in shape or if you are stuck at home and the gyms are closed. I am lucky that I have a set of stairs on the inside of my apartment where I have been climbing them with the sandbag as well doing calf raises on them. A little fun exercise is to do 10 calf raises on the first step and go up each set and see how far you can get. My little baby calves only make it six steps until I collapse.

Pull-ups, side-bends, hill-climbers and many others are perfect for the home workout – there is no gym required to get fit and look good. It starts with motivation. Once you get going, it’s a wrap. Game on. Take this time at home to perfect your form, diet and goals for the future. Personally I am working more on my core, stamina and my diet to get a strong foundation. When I do return to the gym it’s going to be an all-you-can-eat buffet, and I’m hungry.

Sometimes, later becomes never. A lot of times I do not want to do what is uncomfortable but I just do it. After that, I never regret it. Success doesn’t just find you, you have to go and find it and repeat. My two favorite sayings that drive me are:

William Brower
William Brower is a Certified Personal Trainer, published fitness writer, nutrition advisor and owner of CY2B Fitness apparel company who works toward enhancing the well-being of his clients by using the knowledge, skills and resources he has learned over the years to assist and inspire them on their journey to a healthier life. The method of training William focuses on is high-intensity interval training (HIIT). He believes that short bursts of high-intensity exercise followed by brief, low-intensity activity will help your body to burn calories for greater periods of time. William firmly believes that engaging your core each day in your fitness routine will help build a strong foundation. His philosophy is to “Develop an active lifestyle while having a balance of physical and mental well-being.” His interests are beach volleyball, boxing, snowboarding, hiking, camping, fitness training and traveling.
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